Radiotelephones are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern society. Included among the broad category of radiotelephones are mobile cellular telephones and conventional telephones with cordless handsets. One of the problems associated with the popularity of radiotelephones is that they are generally similar in color and shape. When two or more radiotelephones end up in a common place, such as a home or place of business, it may be difficult for the owners to identify their own radiotelephone without carefully scrutinizing name tag labels or display LCD's.
Another problem associated with the use of telephones in general is the identification of the nature or type of an incoming call when the user is at a distance away from the telephone. Currently, a method called "distinctive ringing" overcomes this problem by using different ringing frequencies and ringing patterns to indicate differences in incoming communications. However, as the number of categories into which the incoming communications must be distinguished increases, it becomes more difficult for the user to differentiate between the ringing frequencies and/or the ringing patterns associated with the categories of incoming communications. The aural basis of the distinctive ringing system may also make this method distracting to bystanders.
There is, of course, an advantage to the use of a color-code system to address both the problems of ownership identification and differentiation between different types of incoming communications. A color-code system is a visual method of identification which can be quickly recognized by the user, even at a distance, and is less distracting to bystanders than an aural method. Visual recognition by the user may also be further facilitated by the use of one or more sets of indicia integral with the housing of the radiotelephone which would permit viewing of the displayed color-code signals from different directions. Therefore, a color-coded visual notification system incorporated into a radiotelephone will provide a flexible and effective means for notifying the user of the nature of any identification data as well as any other events which may be amenable to such a coding scheme.